The Iola register., 1887-03-18

surrender the man who committed that
crime"
The chieftain who did the crimssteppei
out from the ranks and said:
II am not afraid to die, but I have
wife and four children. and have father
aged and mother aged, whom support
by hunting, and sorrow to leave them
helpless"
Just as he said that his old father from
behind stepped out and said:
"He shall not die; take his place.
am old and we'll stricken in years. can
do NO good. might As well die. Ny days
are almost over. He can not be spar ed.
Take me-"
And they accepted the sacrifice. Won
derful sacrificed you say, but not so Won
derful ss that found in the Gospel for
we deserved to die, aye, we were SEN
fenced when Christ, not worn out with
years, but in flush OF his youth said:
''Save that man from going down to the
| pitt am the ransom. Put his burdens on
my shoulders. Let his stripes fall on my
back Take my heart for his heart Let
me die that he may live"
Shall it be told in Heaven to-day that,
| Notwithstanding all those wounds, and all
that blood, and all those tears, and all
that agony, you would not accept hint
Was 1t for crimes that I nad done.
He groaned upon the tree!
Amazing pity, grace unknown,
And love beyond degree.
There is no woe amid the surroundings
of that scene that impresses me more
! than that Of his own mother. You need
not point her out to me. can see by the
sorrow, the anguish, the wos, by the up
thrown hands That all means mother.
SgOh vo,, sxvh didn't ho on 1ovvp
to the foot of the hill and sit with her back
to the scene, 1t was too horrible for her
to look upon"
Do you not know when a child is in
anguish or trouble it always makes
heroine of motherl Take her away, you
say, rom the cross. You can not drag
her away. She will keep on looking: as
her son breathes she will stand there
looking. Oh, what a scene 1t was for a
, tender-hearted mother to look uponi
How gladly she would have sprung to his
relief 1t was her son. Her son. How
gladly she would have clambered up on the
cross and hung there herself il her son
could have been relieved. H,w strength
ening she would have been to Christ
il she might have come close by him, and
soothed hlml Oh, there was Q good deal
in what the little sick child said upon
whom surgical operation Of a painful
nature must be performed. The doctor
said:
ssThat child won't live through this
operation unless you encourage him. You
go in and get his consent"
The father told him all the doctor said,
and added:
snow, John, will you 60 through with
it; will you consent to itG'
He looked very pale, and he tn ought
minute and said:
"Yes, father, if you will hold my hand l
will"
straight through the peril Oh. woman,
in your hour Of anguish, whom do you
| want with you! Mother. II the mother
of Jesus could only have taken those
bleeding feet into her lap. If she might
have taken the dying head on her bosom.
i If she might have said to him:
at will soon be over, Jesus; it will soon
be over, and we will meet again and it
| will be all WE'LL"
But no. she dared not come up so close.
They would have struck her back with
their hammers. They would have kicke1
her down the hill.
There can be no aleviation at all. Je
sus must suffer and Mary must look. i
suppose she thought of the birth-hour in
Bethlehem. Isuppose she thought OF the
! time when. with her boy in her bosom,
she haste ened into the darkness in the
| fiji ght toward Egypt. i suppose she
| thought of his bovh1 1Oi, when he was the
| Joy of her heart. l suppose she thought OF
the thousand kindnesses he had done her.
| not forsaking her or forgetting aer. even
| in his last mona ents, but turning to john
and saying:
There is mother: take her with you.
She is old now; she c,n not help herscf.
| Do for her just as would have done for
her if 1 had lived. Be very tender and
gentle with her. Behold thy m ,ther."
| She thought it all over, and there i. no
memory like mothers memory and there
is no woe like a mothers woe.
remark again: This is a ten ter scene
| because it is Christian reunion. Why is
| it that in the sessional meeting, when l
| asked woman If it were her son who sat
next to her making profession of his faith,
| she made no answer, but, after a moment
trying to control her emotion, she burst
into tcarss 1 said within myself: She
need not tell me the story. 1t is the oil
story of prodigal got back. ''The dead
is alive again, and the lost Is found" Oh,
how any families there are that rejoice
together to-day!
These Christians during the rest Of the
year, perhaps. will not know much about
each other. You go in one circle OF So
ciety, these go in some other circle OF So
ciety, and this one travels in that path,
and this one the other path; but to-day we
all come on one platform. and we make
one confession, and we cling to one cross,
and we gaze upoa one death anguish. 1t
seems to me this morning not like
church, but like a great family circle,
and We Join hands around the cross Of
Christ, and we say:
"One Lord. one faith, one baptism, one
cross, one Christ, one doxology, one
Hcaveu!"
| While 1 stand here it seems to me as if
this communion table, which is only seven
or eight feet long and three or four feet
wide, widens until all the Christians OF
our own denomination can sit at it; and
the table widens until all the Christians
in this land Of all names and denomina-
tions como and sit at it; and still the table
widens until it bridges the sea, and Chris
! tians on the other side OF the Atlantic
come and sit at it; and still that table
widens until the redeemed Of Heaven
| mingle in the communion. Church mill
tant; Church triumphant.
One army OF the living God,
To His com mmand we bow;
Port Of the host has crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.
Again, my friends, this is an absorbing
| scene because 1t arouses SO many pre-
cious memories. We look back, and re-
member the days Of our childhood, when,
long before we knew the. meaning of the
| bread and wine, we sat in the side pews